pop – Page 32

Stevie Wonder | Please, Please, Please

“Stevie Wonder is a soul music giant, a beloved American icon, and an indisputable genius of popular music,” (AllMusic). “The musician’s heightened awareness of sound — a consequence of his blindness — has helped him create vibrant music teeming with joyous positivity, even when he’s written about heartbreak and addressed issues of race, spirituality, and society in general. Wonder’s recordings are a richly eclectic and singular brew of soul, funk, rock & roll, Broadway/Tin Pan Alley-style pop, jazz, reggae, and African elements. Combined with his elastic voice, peerless melodic facility, gift for complex arrangements, and taste for lovely ballads, his broad appeal over the decades has been unmatched.”

The 1967 album I Was Made to Love Her “was rushed out to capitalize on the success of the title song, which was Wonder’s biggest pop hit since ‘Fingertips, Pt. 2,’ and would not be bettered until ‘Superstition’ in 1972 … There are several contributions from the Wonder team at Motown, covers of other Motown hits, and stabs at sounding like Ray Charles, James Brown, and Otis Redding. At 17, Wonder was becoming both a remarkable mimic, and an original talent on his own.”

Between the prominent piano fills, the layers of female backup singers, and Stevie’s interpretation on lead vocal, it certainly seems that this was the Ray Charles section of the album! At 1:24, at just about the tune’s half-point, a half-step key change hits, followed by another at 1:53.

Gary Lewis + the Playboys | This Diamond Ring

“Of all the Gary Lewis and the Playboys’ sixties hits, their first, ‘This Diamond Ring,’ was the biggest,” (Forbes). “It took just six weeks to climb to #1 on the U.S. Billboard 100 chart, on February 20, 1965, knocking The Beatles’ ‘Eight Days A Week’ from the top spot. The tune has since stood the test of time: It is still a staple on classic rock radio stations.”

Lewis remembers how the tune came to be the foundation of his career: “‘We were 19 years old, in college, our first or second year. The band played sorority and fraternity parties for 40 bucks a night. We auditioned at Disneyland, and got a job there in the summer of ’64. Our producer, Snuffy Garrett, was out at the park with his family. He was head of A&R at Liberty Records. After our show, he came backstage to talk about recording. He had (the) song … and asked us to come over to Liberty to tell him what we thought of it. I said sure, but I would have said I liked it no matter what it was. It just happened to be ‘Diamond Ring,’ and we cut it. It stunned the hell out of us … We ended up with seven top-10s in a row. We and The Beach Boys were the only American groups able to stay on the charts during the whole British Invasion.'”

After a start in C minor, the chorus shifts to F# major at 0:22, then pivots up a half-step to the dominant of the original C minor (0:40) and back to the original C minor (0:44). The pattern holds throughout. Quite an upbeat tune in comparison to the sad lyrics! Many thanks to our second-time contributor Dave Mandl for this submission.

Beatles | Now and Then

“This single feels like a super-human attempt to re-frame the group’s ending,” critic Robin Murray wrote in Clash magazine. “Instead of rancour, unity. Instead of solo competition, studio unity. Instead of losing his friends, finding their voices once more. Maybe it’s the sentimental Beatle-maniac in us, but ‘Now And Then’ feels like something beautiful, something to cherish.”

The track, originally written by John Lennon in 1977, was finally released earlier this month, with Lennon’s voice extracted from his original demo with audio restoration technology. It quickly shot up the charts in countries across the world, and is accompanied by a music video directed by Peter Jackson featuring never-before-seen footage of the group.

The song subtly switches between A minor on the verses and G major for the choruses, with the relative majors of each key being tonicized occasionally as well.

Yusuf / Cat Stevens | Land of Free Love + Goodbye

One of the most prominent singer/songwriters of the 1970s, UK native Cat Stevens (now known as Yusuf) had many hits in the first half of that decade, releasing more than one album a year during a brief period. Just as his popularity started to wane a bit, Stevens released Numbers” … subtitled A Pythagorean Theory Tale … based on a fictional planet in a far-off galaxy named Polygor,” (from the liner notes).

“Numbers (1975) sits in a peculiar position in Cat’s back catalogue – the last real attempt at making something ‘new’ and different’ in his ‘first’ career, the last album started from scratch before his conversion to Islam and, most interestingly of all, the only real half-concept/story album in his back catalogue,” (AlansAlbumArchives). “Even when concept albums were all the range at Cat’s peak (1970-73) Cat never made an album like this one, based on one rounded theme (his songs almost always share the same theme but are separate discussions of each topic and sub-topic – he never again takes us on a half-hour journey somewhere like this again).”

After an intro in F# major, the verse tumbles into D major (0:16). At 2:25, an instrumental outro turns around a few times before landing us in B major.

The Tubes | Let’s Make Some Noise

“… I was happy to hear the band cash in on their talent,” (Propography.com). (The band’s 1981 album) “The Completion Backward Principle benefits from good packaging (the band re-envisioned as a business, which wasn’t much of a stretch at this point) and great production from David Foster, who also co-wrote many of the songs. It isn’t a concept album … just a collection of songs that seem to take their inspiration from a bad day of TV programming (are you getting the sense they were watching too much television?): serial killers, giant women, amnesia.

Is The Completion Backward Principle a sellout? The answer probably depends on who you ask. Capitol didn’t bring in David Foster to make another convoluted concept album, yet The Tubes weren’t ready to become Toto 2.0 just yet. That said, lampooning the business side of the music business doesn’t change the fact that The Completion Backward Principle is (good) product.”

The album’s closing track, “Let’s Make Some Noise,” represents the glossiest New Wave/pop edge of the veteran band’s broad sonic range. The synth-heavy arrangement also makes good use of the band’s strong vocal firepower, with nearly all the personnel pitching in on backing vocals behind frontman Fee Waybill’s lead. After an intro and verse in D major, the verse shifts to C# minor (0:43). The pattern holds for verse 2 and chorus 2. At 2:04, the chorus shifts up a whole step to D# minor.

for Eric

This second video shows the band in the full simulated corporate regalia which was the centerpiece of the album’s concept. Album promotion via simulated industrial film(?) Why not?

Backstreet Boys | Never Gone

“Never Gone” is the final track on the Backstreet Boys’ eponymous 2005 album. The record marked a transition for the group from a teen pop style into a more pop/rock, contemporary sound, and is the first album of theirs to exclusively use live instruments. It debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 chart, and has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.

The intro of the track is in D minor but quickly transitions to F, the relative major, when the vocals enter. There is a modulation up a whole step to G following the brief bridge at 2:43.

Barbra Streisand & Bryan Adams | I Finally Found Someone

“I Finally Found Someone,” written by Barbra Streisand, Bryan Adams, Marvin Hamlisch and Robert John Lange, was featured in the 1996 film The Mirror Has Two Faces.

Streisand, who directed and starred in the picture, said in an interview with The Los Angeles Times that “I wrote the love theme, the main love theme, then Marvin wrote a bridge to it, and that was going to be our song. Then David Foster [who produced the track] had the idea that I should sing the duet with Bryan Adams. Bryan played our track and heard me humming and fell in love with this little theme that I wrote, and then he and his producer Mutt Lange wrote a counter melody based on the track that I sent him. And they wrote the lyrics. So that’s how that happened. I don’t think his record company wanted him to sing with me…because I’m more traditional, and I haven’t had a hit since I don’t know when.”

The song was nominated for an Oscar and reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was included on Streisand’s 2002 compilation album Duets. Streisand’s long-awaited memoir, My Name is Barbra, was released last week.

The track contains many modulations. It begins in B and shifts down to Ab at 0:42, and then further down to F for the chorus at 1:10. The second verse moves up to C at 1:58, and then jumps up a tritone to F# for the chorus at 2:26, where it stays until the end.

Blood, Sweat + Tears | You’ve Made Me So Very Happy

Blood, Sweat and Tears, a jazz/rock 10-piece band from New York City, has curiously avoided a MotD debut to date — but that ends now! From Rolling Stone‘s 1969 review of Blood, Sweat & Tears’ eponymous second album by John Landau: “… a perfect example of the rock record that ‘tries harder.’ While at some points on the record the basic style of the group resembles rock and roll, more often the listener is being bombarded with non-rock arranging devices, non-rock solos, and non-rock material, all of which tells him that ‘something else’ is going. The obvious response is that we are hearing something new: rock being mixed with jazz, rock being mixed with soul, etc. Ultimately, someone at Columbia will come up with a name for it: ‘jazz-folk-soul-baroque-C&W-latin-show-tune-rock.’ And for once the hyphenated labeling would be appropriate because BS+T play hyphenated music: first they play folk, then they play jazz, then they play latin, etc. Styles exist in tangent on their record, but never merge into one.”

Landau continues his cutting criticisms of the band’s ambitious sound throughout the review. A criticism that can’t be made about the band, however, is that they were following any kind of well-established trend whatsoever. Instead, they seemed to be putting out feelers to see where the edges of stylistic possibility were — an exercise which can easily get awkward, and fast. But the very idea of the musical genre hyphenate was very much in the air during the late 1960s and early 1970s; in addition to jazz musicians adding rock elements to their sound, why shouldn’t a rock group work with some jazz elements? Perhaps further bolstering the band’s experimental nature: during its existence, no fewer than 160 musicians were part of the lineup!

“You’ve Made Me So Very Happy,”written by Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson and Motown head Berry Gordy, was initially released in 1967 by Brenda Holloway. Re-released by BS+T, “it became one of BS+T’s biggest hits, reaching number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in April 1969,” (Billboard). “The song was kept from the number 1 spot by ‘Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In’ by The 5th Dimension.” The tune was later covered by Cher, Liza Minnelli, Lou Rawls, Sammy Davis Jr., Shirley Bassey, Gloria Estefan, and many others. After starting in Db major, a brief interlude (1:48-2:08) is in Gb major, followed by a multi-key instrumental journey of a bridge (2:08-2:48) and a return to the chorus (this time in D major). At 3:22, an outro with a much gentler groove and tempo ends the tune in G major.

Dan Hartman | The Love In Your Eyes

“During the ’70s, Dan Hartman was a member of the Edgar Winter Group and was also in Johnny Winter’s band for a time,” (AllMusic). “Hartman was also a session musician who supported artists as diverse as Ian Hunter, Stevie Wonder, Todd Rundgren, and Ronnie Montrose. After releasing one undistinguished solo pop/rock album in 1976, he hit the big time with the fine disco album, Instant Replay,” which featured a hit single of the same name.

“Its follow-up, Relight My Fire, wasn’t as successful and Hartman retreated to the studio, producing .38 Special, the Average White Band, and James Brown; he (wrote and) was behind the board for Brown’s comeback (and final) hit, “Living in America,” in 1986. Hartman had one more hit in 1985 with the pop-soul “I Can Dream About You.” Again, his follow-ups weren’t successful and he returned to producing. He was preparing a new album at the time of his death in March of 1994.” Hartman had lived with HIV for several years when he passed away.

Certainly, Hartman’s was an iceberg of a career: it seems that only the top fraction was visible, with the rest of his work submerged beneath the surface as he worked with other artists. Neil Sedaka, a friend and a one-time neighbor, spoke of Hartman after his passing: “I loved working with him. He played, sang, wrote, mixed, mastered … he did it all!” (DanHartman.com). “I would call him a genius. I think of him often and smile!”

“The Love In Your Eyes,” one of Hartman’s final singles released posthumously on 1995’s Keep the Fire Burnin’, starts in D minor. At 0:55, the chorus shifts to Eb major. The pattern continues from there, other than a brief bridge which provides additional variety from 2:50-3:12. Hartman’s material was known for varied textures and complex grooves, but this track features a broader harmonic vocabulary than most. Hartman’s writing, phrasing, and string-embellished arrangement on this track often conjure up a tenor version of soul legend Barry White. “Wrapped in warm romance, [the] tune has a retro-soul quality (Billboard) … it shows that he was still among the best writers and producers in pop music.”

Lou Christie | Rhapsody in the Rain

“While Lou Christie’s shrieking falsetto was among the most distinctive voices in all of pop music, he was also one of the first solo performers of the rock era to compose his own material, generating some of the biggest and most memorable hits of the mid-’60s,” (AllMusic). Born Lugee Alfredo Giovanni Sacco in the Pittsburgh suburb of Glenwillard, PA in 1943, he relocated after high school to New York and “landed session work as a backing vocalist. Christie wrote and recorded ‘Two Faces Have I;’ it landed in the Top Ten…” In 1966, he released “the lush, chart-topping ‘Lightnin’ Strikes.'”

“Christie’s next smash, 1966’s ‘Rhapsody in the Rain,’ was notorious for being among the more sexually explicit efforts of the period.” Songfacts reports: “The Catholic Church helped get this banned on many radio stations, which only made people want to hear it more. Christie (in Goldmine magazine): ‘I had priests and nuns calling to complain. Even Time magazine did an article on it, saying I was corrupting the youth.'”

After starting in Eb major, an otherwise nearly featureless bridge (2:04-2:19) brings a brief whole-step modulation to F before returning to the original key. But at 2:34, a late shift to E major kicks in just as the tune begins to fade.

Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!